DESIGN AND DIVERSITY

Since 2008, ENSCI-Les Ateliers has been instrumental in a number of projects involving secondary school and sixth form college students, the majority coming from schools in the national priority education network.

In 2017, as part of its commitment to equal opportunities and openness to cultural and social diversity, it introduced a new induction programme for 14 and 15 year-old students attending a week-long internship to find out more about the realities of working in companies.

This supportive introduction to design delivers a more diverse, creative, dynamic, collaborative, understandable and sustainable experience. It is structured into a series of workshops for around ten interns per week.  

To enliven this programme, ENSCI-Les Ateliers decided to bring its students together with its network of professionals - former students and collaborators - to make the workshop sessions a fully immersive experience. This network of design professionals is keen to share their experience and help others to discover what daily life is like in their professional practice. It is also an opportunity to extend this first encounter by providing ongoing support defined by each of them on the basis of their own skills and the needs of individual students for the remainder of their courses. ENSCI students kicked off this programme by offering interns a broad range of workshops, from materials and modelling to graphics, laser cutting, drawing, exhibition and gallery visits, screen printing, CAD/CAM, creative writing and interactive discussion.

These personal encounters give young interns the opportunity to immerse themselves in a more creative setting and discover new fields of expression. It is also an opportunity for them to experience and learn about some of the tools of the trade used by practising designers. The resulting interaction and sharing experience is an exciting adventure. This programme can therefore broaden the options of these young people in terms of the visual arts, and can sometimes spark new vocations. They are also extremely fulfilling for all those involved.

Today, ENSCI-Les Ateliers is part of a national equal opportunities programme designed to facilitate access to the network of art and design schools run by the French Ministries of Culture and National Education. Each school is required to create partnerships with two secondary schools in its academy to implement the programme content. 

PARTNERS :

— the Marc de Lacharrière Corporate Foundation - Culture & Diversity
— the French Ministry of Culture
— the French Ministry of National Education
— 7 art and design graduate schools (the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Lyon, École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Paris, École supérieure d'art et de design de Marseille-Méditerranée, École nationale supérieure d'art de Limoges, École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, École nationale supérieure d'art de Bourges and the École supérieure d'arts & médias Caen-Cherbourg)
— the National Association of Art Graduate Schools (ANdEA)
— the National Association of Public Foundation Classes for Art Schools (APPEA)